"The Irresistible Church" by Wayne

-


Wayne Cordeiro. Irresistible Church, The: 12 Traits of a Church Heaven Applauds. Bethany House Publishers, 2011. 176 pgs. 

"Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc. 
Available at your favourite bookseller from Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group".  



Wayne Cordeiro is a mega-church pastor in Hawaii. This book contains his advice on 12 traits of a church that heaven applauds. And that is the first thing you need to know about this book; it is not about making your church irresistible to other people, rather it is about making your church irresistible to God (though Cordeiro insists that if you have the latter, you will have the former as well). As you should expect, each chapter (other than the introduction) outlines one of these 12 traits. According to Cordeiro an irresistible church: Hungers for the presence of God, remembers who she is, lives heart first, practices gratefulness, promotes healthy relationships, is always learning, promotes spiritual self-feeding, connects everything to a soul, chooses to love, takes risks, humbles itself, and has a plan. 

I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by this book. You should know that I approached it with some skepticism. I find that books based on a list (7 habits of excellence, 5 steps to improve your prayer life, 12 steps to get everything you ever wanted for yourself and your entire network of family, friends, and acquaintances, etc.) are generally not very good. They tend to be about taking formulas which worked for one specific individual in one specific context and applying them everywhere. They deny the intrinsic importance of place and person, promote short-cuts, and as a rule they over-promise and under-deliver. Why, then, you might wonder, did I accept this book for free review? 2 reasons: the author, and the subject. I have heard Wayne Cordeiro speak and preach and quite enjoyed it. Also, in the blurb I got it mentioned that this book was about making a church irresistible to God rather than people. This intrigued me. 

In a lot of ways, the book is what you would expect. Filled with stories and illustrations, lacking focus in its subject, using scripture as proof-texts, and all to brief in the teaching of each of the points. However, in other ways it was not what you would expect. 7 of the 12 traits are genuinely good, healthy, and necessary advice. The other 5 are not bad; ranging from obvious to good teaching, each one was still worth reading. I especially appreciate his words about love, humility, and desiring the presence of God. 

Conclusion: 3.5 Stars. Conditionally recommended. This is a decent book. It is a quick read, filled with good advice, and while somewhat formulaic Cordeiro has managed to get past that enough to make it worth reading. Just don't expect this to be what it isn't. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Forgiveness: A Hard Word From Luther

-
"Those who follow Christ grieve more over the sin of their offenders than over the loss or offense to themselves. And they do this that they may recall those offenders from their sin rather than avenge the wrongs they themselves have suffered. Therefore they put off the form of their own righteousness and put on the form of those others, praying for their persecutors, blessing those who curse, doing good to the evil-doers, preparing to pay the penalty and make satisfaction for their very enemies that they may be saved. This is the gospel and the example of Christ." - Martin Luther (Quoted by Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge, pg. 161-162)
Read more

Proper Confidence: Faith, Doubt, and Certainty

-
Image
Leslie Newbigin, Proper Confidence: Faith, Doubt , and Certainty in Christian Discipleship. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, 1995. 105 pgs. In this gem of a book Newbigin takes the reader on a journey away from the idea of Cartesian certainty and towards a more proper scaffolding for thought and belief. He denies the possibility of ideal certainty with no doubt and concludes that seeking this ideal can only to skepticism (of an extreme sort) and Nihilism. The thesis of this book might best best be stated as follows: the proper confidence of a Christian is not the possession of indubitable knowledge but the confidence of one who has heard and answered God's call of 'Follow me.' In order to demonstrate this point, Newbigin first examines three 'paths' whose titles, which are his first three chapter titles, seem somewhat counter-intuitive. In the first chapter, 'Faith as the Way to Knowledge,' Newbigin argues that if knowledge, and God, are ultim
Read more

A Good Tree Bears Good Fruit....

-
Image
"Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit." - Matthew 7:17-18 "One of the most powerful ways to influence the behavior of a system is through its purpose or goal. That's because the goal is the direction-setter of the system, the definer of discrepancies that require action, the indicator of compliance, failure, or success toward which balancing feedback loops work. If the goal is defined badly, if it doesn't measure what it's supposed to measure, if it doesn't reflect the real welfare of the system, then the system can't possibly produce a desirable result. Systems, like the three wishes in the traditional fairy tale, have a terrible tendency to produce exactly and only what you ask them to produce. Be careful what you ask them to produce." - Donella H. Meadows, Thinking in Systems. 
Read more